Symphonies
Bruckner 5 · Dvořák 7 · Beethoven 6 · Mahler 9
Oper
Puccini: Madama Butterfly
Rachmaninoff Francesca da Rimini
Discoveries
Wolfgang Rihm
Miroslav Srnka
Sofia Gubaidulina
Soloists
Vilde Frang
Daniil Trifonov
Frank Peter Zimmerman
The Berliner Philharmoniker and Kirill Petrenko are continually expanding their repertoire together – this season, for example, with symphonies by Beethoven, Bruckner, Dvořák and Mahler. Music by Sergei Rachmaninov, with which Kirill Petrenko has been closely acquainted since his childhood, will be heard twice. In addition to the established greats of the repertoire, there will be auditory adventures with such composers as Miroslav Srnka, Sofia Gubaidulina and Wolfgang Rihm. Finally, a staging of Puccini’s ever-popular Madama Butterfly brings a tragic verismo opera to the orchestra’s playbook.
Great symphonic music is at the beginning and end of Kirill Petrenko’s concerts with the Berliner Philharmoniker during the 2024/25 season. In between, an arc extends from Viennese Classicism to the present, focussing on the chief conductor’s programming over the years: orchestral works from the Austro-German tradition, music from the Slavic repertoire, compositions from the 20th and 21st centuries and opera.
Anton Bruckner’s Fifth Symphony will be heard at the season opening and on three evenings in September; Kirill Petrenko conducts a work by this composer with the Berliner Philharmoniker for the first time. Symphonic music from the DNA of the Berliner Philharmoniker – by Ludwig van Beethoven (“Pastoral”), Johannes Brahms (the Second Piano Concerto, with Daniil Trifonov) and Antonín Dvořák (the Seventh Symphony) – is spread over the season. Music by Sergei Rachmaninoff, a composer from Kirill Petrenko’s native country, that has been familiar to him since his childhood will be presented on two programmes: first, the tone poem The Isle of the Dead, which he now also wants to play before an audience after a performance during the lockdown, and second, a concert performance of the one-act opera Francesca da Rimini. More Russian music will be heard with Sofia Gubaidulina’s apocalyptic spiritual work The Wrath of God.
Modernist music is featured often on Kirill Petrenko’s programmes, ranging from its beginnings to the present day. Creative mavericks of the 20th century will be heard – including the violin concertos by Edward Elgar (with Frank Peter Zimmermann) and Erich Wolfgang Korngold (with Vilde Frang). The latter work, composed in American exile, was a curiosity since it is filled with melodies and motifs from Korngold’s Oscar-winning film scores. Jean Sibelius is another unconventional figure of the 20th century; in his Lemminkäinen Suite he depicts the adventures of the not at all heroic hero of the Finnish national epic, the Kalevala. The most recent music includes Miroslav Srnka’s composition Superorganisms – a commissioned work that will be heard as a German premiere during the Biennale Paradise Lost? On the Threat to Nature. Also on Kirill Petrenko’s schedule for the season is the epochal work IN-SCHRIFT by this year’s Composer in Residence, Wolfgang Rihm.
As an acclaimed opera conductor, Kirill Petrenko is of course especially sought-after at the Easter Festival, whose new production will be presented in concert at the Philharmonie Berlin after the staged performances in Baden-Baden; Puccini’s Madama Butterfly is on the agenda this year. Kirill Petrenko will devote his last concert of the season to Gustav Mahler’s Ninth Symphony, which he not only regards as the composer’s “musical testament” but above all as a “visionary work”, whose influence as the “prototype for Modernist music” is perceptible to this day.
Main Auditorium
Berliner Philharmoniker
Kirill Petrenko conductor
Frank Peter Zimmermann violin
Works by
Edward Elgar and Jean Sibelius
Edward Elgar
Concerto for Violin and Orchestra in B minor, op. 61
Frank Peter Zimmermann violin
Interval
Jean Sibelius
Lemminkäinen Suite, op. 22
Main Auditorium
Berliner Philharmoniker
Kirill Petrenko conductor
Frank Peter Zimmermann violin
Works by
Edward Elgar and Jean Sibelius
Edward Elgar
Concerto for Violin and Orchestra in B minor, op. 61
Frank Peter Zimmermann violin
Interval
Jean Sibelius
Lemminkäinen Suite, op. 22
Biennale of the Berliner Philharmoniker
Main Auditorium
Berliner Philharmoniker
Kirill Petrenko conductor
Works by
Edgard Varèse, Miroslav Srnka and Ludwig van Beethoven
Edgard Varèse
Arcana for large Orchestra (revised version from 1960)
Miroslav Srnka
Superorganisms, commissioned by Berliner Philharmoniker Foundation, NHK Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Czech Philharmonic and Orchestre de Paris (German premiere)
Interval
Ludwig van Beethoven
Symphony No. 6 in F major, op. 68 “Pastoral”
Also available as Biennale package
Biennale of the Berliner Philharmoniker
Main Auditorium
Berliner Philharmoniker
Kirill Petrenko conductor
Works by
Edgard Varèse, Miroslav Srnka and Ludwig van Beethoven
Edgard Varèse
Arcana for large Orchestra (revised version from 1960)
Miroslav Srnka
Superorganisms, commissioned by Berliner Philharmoniker Foundation, NHK Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Czech Philharmonic and Orchestre de Paris (German premiere)
Interval
Ludwig van Beethoven
Symphony No. 6 in F major, op. 68 “Pastoral”
Also available as Biennale package
Biennale of the Berliner Philharmoniker
Main Auditorium
Berliner Philharmoniker
Kirill Petrenko conductor
Works by
Edgard Varèse, Miroslav Srnka and Ludwig van Beethoven
Edgard Varèse
Arcana for large Orchestra (revised version from 1960)
Miroslav Srnka
Superorganisms, commissioned by Berliner Philharmoniker Foundation, NHK Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Czech Philharmonic and Orchestre de Paris (German premiere)
Interval
Ludwig van Beethoven
Symphony No. 6 in F major, op. 68 “Pastoral”
Also available as Biennale package
Education
Biennale of the Berliner Philharmoniker
Main Auditorium
Family concert: “Pastorale”
Berliner Philharmoniker
Kirill Petrenko conductor and co-presentation
Stephan Baumecker Acting
Tobias Ribitzki stage direction
Ludwig van Beethoven
Symphony No. 6 in F major, op. 68 “Pastoral”: Excerpts
Prices for adults include a donation for the UNO Flüchtlingshilfe
Main Auditorium
Berliner Philharmoniker
Kirill Petrenko conductor
Eleonora Buratto soprano (Cio-Cio-San)
Teresa Iervolino mezzo-soprano (Suzuki)
Jonathan Tetelman tenor (Benjamin Franklin Pinkerton)
Tassis Christoyannis baritone (Sharpless)
Didier Pieri tenor (Goro)
Lilia Istratii mezzo-soprano (Kate Pinkerton)
Aksel Daveyan baritone (Prince Yamadori)
Giorgi Chelidze bass (Uncle Bonzo)
Jasurbek Khaydarov bass (Imperial Commissioner)
Rundfunkchor Berlin
Giacomo Puccini
Madama Butterfly
Main Auditorium
Berliner Philharmoniker
Kirill Petrenko conductor
Eleonora Buratto soprano (Cio-Cio-San)
Teresa Iervolino mezzo-soprano (Suzuki)
Jonathan Tetelman tenor (Benjamin Franklin Pinkerton)
Tassis Christoyannis baritone (Sharpless)
Didier Pieri tenor (Goro)
Lilia Istratii mezzo-soprano (Kate Pinkerton)
Aksel Daveyan baritone (Prince Yamadori)
Giorgi Chelidze bass (Uncle Bonzo)
Jasurbek Khaydarov bass (Imperial Commissioner)
Rundfunkchor Berlin
Giacomo Puccini
Madama Butterfly
Main Auditorium
Berliner Philharmoniker
Kirill Petrenko conductor
Gustav Mahler
Symphony No. 9